松牡丹孔雀図|Peacocks, Pine Tree, and Peonies

Lü Ji 呂紀

probably 19th century · Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk · Asian Art

Paintings by Lü Ji (Japanese: Ryoki), a professional painter from the area of Ningbo in China, began to be exported to Japan by the early sixteenth century and had a significant impact on polychrome bird-and-flower painting in Japan during the late Muromachi period (1392–1573) and thereafter. This Lü Ji style work, created in Japan, bears a forged copy of a seal found on genuine works by Lü (see, for example, 1980.414 and 2005.494.2). It was likely created late in the Edo period or shortly thereafter, when largescale works by Lü or in his style continued to be in high demand. The painted image has been significantly compromised, with widespread abrasion of the surface and loss of pigments, which may have occurred when the work was remounted in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, before it was donated to The Met in 1914.

Artist

Lü Ji 呂紀

Date

probably 19th century

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Charles Stewart Smith Collection, Gift of Mrs. Charles Stewart Smith, Charles Stewart Smith Jr., and Howard Caswell Smith, in memory of Charles Stewart Smith, 1914